Yesterday I spent the afternoon teaching English to 35 students, all over the age of 60. At the beginning of this month, my fellow Fulbright and roomie, Carol Reyes, and I began volunteer-teaching an English course at the neighborhood senior citizen center. This is not a nursing home, though older persons who cannot care for themselves can spend the day there while their families are at work. Most of the elderly people visit the facility by choice, attending various classes from yoga to traditional musical instrument practice to foreign language study.
Carol and I review basic food vocabulary with corresponding photos.
The students practice giving directions in English to me and Carol. Their English is pretty advanced.
The students always come up with great and interesting questions, some of which Carol and I are unable to answer. For example, "What is the specific English word for 'goat meat'?" "When do you say 'go up the street' versus 'go down the street'?" Or "Why is the fruit called a "pine" apple?" My standard answer: "I will write down your question and ask my mom."
I love that they want to sing, we sing a lot in German class and it makes it ten times more fun. Yay for asking mom all their questions :p
ReplyDeleteEnglish doesn't make sense, as far the pineapple thing. My German teacher goes on and on about that all the time. Take "refrigerator". The word gives no clue as to what it means. In German, it's "kuhlschrank" which means cool closet. DUH.